Nearly all the jobs created in the UK since 2001 have gone to immigrants – not British born workers
New research from think tank Migrationwatch – based on Government figures – shows that virtually all the extra 1.34 million jobs have now been filled by people from abroad, notably by the half a million workers who have come to the UK from Eastern Europe.
Over the same period there has been no progress at all in getting British born unemployed workers into work; the number in employment did increase between 2001 and 2005 but there has since been a fall of nearly a quarter of a million. Meanwhile the number of East European (A8) employees rose by nearly half a million after they were given free access to our labour market in 2004.
The study also shows that the number of East Europeans is starting to stabilise. Some are now leaving the UK but they are also continuing to arrive – although at a lower rate of about 13,000 a month. The Labour Force Survey shows that the number working in the UK has been stable at about 500,000 in the first three quarters of 2008.
‘From an immigration point of view this means that migration from Eastern Europe is moving into balance as we have been predicting but, from the point of view of British born workers, the damage to their prospects has already been done – at a time when jobs of almost all kinds are at a premium,’ said Sir Andrew Green, Migrationwatch chairman.
‘This must have been staring the government in the face for a long time yet even last month they described the East European migrants as “helping to fill gaps in the labour market. Rather than come clean about the effect of massive immigration on the prospects of British born workers they have been spinning the statistics and camouflaging the true position with “tough talk” about immigration.
‘Now that the cat is out of the bag they cannot possibly lift such restrictions as now exist on Romanian and Bulgarian workers.’